(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knitting fabric take-down device located under a needle bed gap between front and back needle beds of a flat knitting machine and also relates to a knitting fabric take-down device for taking down a double-wall-in-section knitting fabric having a front knitting fabric wall and a back knitting fabric wall, like a tubular knitting fabric, by use of the flat knitting machine.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a flat knitting machine has at least a pair of spaced apart, opposite, front and back needle beds and knitting fabric take-down devices, located under the needle bed gap between the needle beds, for taking down a knitting fabric knitted with needles on the needle beds. A general type of knitting fabric take-down device for taking down a knitted fabric, especially for taking it down uniformly over a whole width of the knitting fabric, to deal with a formation knitting and a stereoscopic knitting is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 57(1982)-55815.
With the device disclosed by the abovesaid prior art, a plurality of driving flaps (hereinafter it is referred to as "take-down members") are arranged in parallel at one side of the knitting fabric take-down devices facing each other across a knitting fabric passageway under the needle bed gap, and knitting fabric contacting surfaces are arranged at the other side, facing the driving flaps (take-down members) across the knitting fabric passageway. The knitting fabric is held between the take-down members and the knitting fabric contacting surfaces. The take-down members, which act as a holding portion subjected to a spring preload to be swingable within a limited range around a pivot shaft extending in a vertical direction of the needle beds, are selectively operated by a raising and lowering device so that when the take-down members are lowered, the knitted fabric can be pulled out downward along the knitting fabric contacting surfaces, and held between the free edges of the take-down members and the knitting fabric contacting surfaces.
This type of device has an advantage of enabling the knitted fabric to be flexibly taken down by controlling the drive of the respective take-down members, with the result that even a stereoscopic knitting fabric can be surely taken down in a desired uniform state along its entire knitting width.
However, in this conventional type take-down device, since the take-down members are always subjected to the preload from the springs, they are pressed against the knitting fabric contacting surfaces, whether or not the knitting fabric exists between the take-down members and the knitting fabric contacting surfaces. This structure by which the take-down members are forced to be always in the above positions can present problems when the knitting fabric is moved transversely in racking operations of the needle beds or transference operations of knitted loops or when holes are formed in specified locations of the knitting fabric.
Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 2(1990)-210046 discloses a knitting machine with a knitting-out device movable up and down along a knitting fabric passageway, and it is capable of capturing the first knitting part of the knitting fabric and transferring the same to the take-down device arranged thereunder. However, this known knitting machine can present a problem in that it is difficult to provide a passageway for the knitting-out device.
Recently, a producing method, what is called a non-sewn knit, has attracted attention, in which sleeves or front and back bodies of a knitted clothing such as a sweater are knitted together at their side edges in a knitting width direction, so as to be formed into a tubular form with a double wall in section, thereby omitting the sewing process after knitting and obtaining a fully stretchable knitting clothing.
However, the front side body and the back side body knitted into a tubular body are not necessarily symmetric about the form and the number of courses of loops, for the reasons that the front and back knitted fabrics must be taken down according to their form and number of courses of loops. With this conventional type take-down device designed to sandwich the knitting fabric between front and back, there was a disadvantage that the knitting fabric could not be taken down adequately.